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Chinese fast-fashion retailer Sheen attracted some of the industry’s top talent for its inaugural Sheen X Design Summit in Los Angeles’ Fashion District on Saturday, hosting designers Laquan Smith and Oscar de la Renta and Monsen designers Laquan Smith and Laura Kim. Stylist Maeve Reilly, and Hildun Corp. CEO Gary Wasner for a day of panel discussion and networking.
The event was created to celebrate the Shain X program, which has onboarded 3,000 designers worldwide, produced select pieces, sold on Shain’s website and paid commissions since its launch in 2021.
One of the first was LA-based Freak City, whose founder Valerie Campbell was at the meeting.
In the year In 2020, she and partner Justin Romero called out Shein on social media for copying their signature punk rock graphics, which had many famous fans including Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Rita Ora. That opened a conversation, which influenced the creation of Shane X.
Shane has invested $55 million in the program, which supports a variety of designers, from “project park” and fashion school students to social media startups with 1,000-plus followers. A total of $5 million in commissions were paid.
By sponsoring events like Vital Voices, cultural events, the Stagecoach Music Festival, and design programs like Shine X, the retailer is working to improve its image after being criticized by mainstream media and social media. .
None of that was mentioned at the conference, which was attended by 280 innovators from Dubai and where Shin paid for their travel expenses. At the venue, many displayed their collections in booths equipped with iPads that displayed QR codes linking them to the items they designed for Shin X.
The idea for the summit came from focus groups with participating designers, said SHIN America President George Chiao, who opened the day by introducing a series of new product launches for 2023 that will help support the program and grow talent beyond SHIN’s operations. .
Shayne X’s launch pad is a partnership with fashion schools that provides students with scholarships and real-world job training. The first school will be a fashion design and merchandising institute in LA, and eventually the partnership will expand to other schools around the country, Chiao said.
The retailer is creating a fund to “help designers in times of crisis”. “It could be a few thousand dollars to open a new collection, or to have a pop-up shop, or to buy inventory.”
Also launching this year is Shayne’s X Design Studio, a “WeWork for designers from LA,” Chiao said, noting that the studio location could be in downtown LA at The Row, near Shayne’s US headquarters. “If the pilot is successful, we will start in other cities like New York.”
In the first two panels, the name Shin does not appear once. Instead, Smith, Kim, Reilly and Wassner talked about their luxury fashion experience, a far cry from Shane’s $9.99 skirt and $2.88 bike shorts.
Marissa Runyon, Laura Kim, Maeve Reilly, Laquan Smith, Gary Wasner.
Image courtesy Virisa Yong/BFA.com
“This is the culmination of a year of work,” said Peter Pernot-Day, Schein’s head of strategy and corporate affairs, in organizing the guest designers program. “There were a lot of nos and a lot of yeses that go with any program. But when we share the on-demand business model and our commitment to the Shane X program, we’re still learning when we share, there are a lot of things we don’t do, and never will, and those things start to open doors. . There are people who are very critical of our brand, and I think that’s something that any brand of our size and scale would struggle with.
“I’ve been supporting young designers my whole career, and they’ve come up with something really new,” Wasner, who has provided financial services to Smith, Michael Kors, Jason Wu, Jonathan Simkhai and many others, told WWD. After the panel he went out to the car.
“George [Chiao] He is a very intelligent man and his motivation is sincere and honest. What they’re doing is giving these young designers the opportunity to make the same money by making Sheen’s product, giving away their designs, and having Sheen make it and sell it with Sheen’s energy. And at the same time, you’re giving them a chance to show what they’re doing, not restricting them… so they’re honestly trying to help designers, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t care about the price point, fashion is fashion. I think there’s a lot here,” Wassner said.
We’re a brand that wants to empower everyone, and I know, every brand has a mission statement…but our founders came from nothing, from selling teapots to selling wedding dresses. So our vision is to bring people in,” Pernot Day said. “And if you look at this room, look at the people here, the designers, they’re from all over. And there’s such a wide variety of voices and ideas and concepts. I think this is a success for us.
In terms of engagement, he said, “We’ve had some of our most popular designs come from Shane X. I think that design is a dynamic and dynamic vision, and I’m very confident that when we’re able to find and create these new voices and visions and promote them, that’s going to make us valuable.
By 2023, it expects to add 1,000 designers worldwide.
“Freak City has been a major inspiration and partner, and I think it reflects how we operate [intellectual property]. Backing up, there are only so many ways to make a shirt. And we inspire each other. Even the references Laquan was talking about were talking about other brands. It’s an area where you can easily cross the line. What we’re trying to do is, like Freak City, admit we’ve made a mistake and come together. Now it’s a great partnership.
“We’ve also built hard controls, we now have a team of 300 reviewers in China and the US, we’ve hired a US general counsel specializing in intellectual property and we’ve seen amazing results. The infringement claims have been denied… We don’t want to be a brand associated with bad practices.”
The designers were all there.
“My best friend sent me one of their flyers,” says Tendai Phillips, who applied to the Shane X Incubator program two years ago and was accepted within a week. The Indianapolis Art Institute graduate supports herself by selling her K-pop-inspired Redefinition collection on Shein.com and selling her own custom designs, which she makes and sells in her hometown.
“You put yourself out there and get feedback,” she says of the valuable information she gets from the retailer that helps guide her designs. “It’s good to see how people react to things. It boosts self-confidence.
While other young designer programs have focused on big names who had the money to make their own sample collections, Sheen said it’s geared toward early-stage creatives. “As soon as you graduate, everyone is asking for a collection, but for me it takes years to have a portfolio. With technology, I don’t have time to wait, they are already looking for the next thing.
As it prepares for an initial public offering later this year, Shen has predicted that it will double its revenue to $58.5 billion by 2025. In the year The world’s largest fashion retailer, founded in Nanjing, China in 2008, is entering the US and plans to hire 850 workers for a new distribution center in Whitestown, Indiana.
It is also tapping into the wider fashion industry. Christian Siriano helped judge a Shayne-sponsored design competition with Khloe Kardashian, and at last fall’s Fashion Group International “Night of the Stars,” two of their guests—models Daphne Welge and Emily Kammeier—wore looks from MOTF x. Christian Siriano Collection, from Shein Premium Brand.
European designers compete in the Shein X fashion competition, which culminates in a fashion show in Paris in June.
The retailer has been pushing its sustainability efforts, and Shein’s head of sustainability, Kathryn Watson, spoke at the conference about integrating sustainable materials into their collections. Shin says his on-demand manufacturing model doesn’t waste much. It produces a minimum of 50 to 100 pieces of each style, then analyzes market response to each piece on its website in real-time to determine whether or not to produce more.
Last year, the retailer began selling Shi’s “exchange” and received criticism from some over the company’s reach. Shein X alone has 30 drops per month.
The retailer hopes to make the Shane X Summit an annual event and go global.
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